Cauley Woodrow was hailed by Wycombe Wanderers as a striker who “averaged a goal every other game during his last spell in League One with Barnsley” , while Mike Dodds believed “that Cauley can thrive in this system and add more goals to our game.”
21 games later, 18 of which were in the league, and Woodrow has largely failed to show the player that Wycombe mentioned in their announcement for the 31-year-old striker. It has been 11 games since his last goal contribution (an assist against Leyton Orient) and 12 games since his last goal (a brace against Plymouth Argyle in the FA cup).
Perhaps most interestingly, in the past two games, Woodrow has instead been deployed as an attacking midfielder in a new 5-2-2-1 system alongside Jamie Mullins, while natural winger Fred Onyedinma has instead filled in as the number nine, albiet to two strong performances including two goals versus Northampton Town.
Woodrow has often looked to drop deep to link play, a mixture of his natural strengths and instructions from new manager Michael Duff who often looked to create goalscoring threat from inside forwards in Sam Bell and Onyedinma, yet too frequently has been a passenger in attack. He has had three shots in his last five matches, compared to backup striker Bradley Fink who matched that in a 14-minute stint off the bench against AFC Wimbledon.
Woodrow has excelled at his passing compared to other strikers, as well as in his expected assists (0.10 expected assists per 90, and 1.08 chances created per 90), but has struggled at the one area he was brought in to fill, to score goals and get on the end of chances.
His 0.13 goals per 90 in the league sees him in the bottom 18% of League One strikers, with Brandon Hanlan (0.20), Chem Campbell (0.25) and even Jack Grimmer (0.14) all averaging more goals per 90 than the striker.
This raises the awkward question, what does he actually do? Duff mentioned post-Northampton that he is playing up Fred up front due to his speed and ability to get onto through balls, which would then also contextualise the rumoured signing of speedy attacker Kayden Jackson.
Yet Woodrow, who has played as a striker for all of his career, seems unable (or Duff is unwilling to allow) to get on the end of attacks, crosses and moves. Which seems bizarre given that’s largely what he was brought in for.
Fundamentally, it speaks to a recruitment system that perhaps did not excel as anticipated. While some players such as Mullins, Dan Casey , Ewan Henderson and Anders Hagelsljær have begun to excel and become fan favourites, others like Magnus Westergaard, Connor Taylor or Woodrow have failed to shine.
Perhaps Fink will have settled into English football by then, similarly to Anders who took a spell to adapt. Perhaps Wycombe will dip into the market once again to find the goalscoring nine who can fire the club to promotion. For now, however, it looks like Wycombe will continue with Woodrow as a makeshift 10, in an awkward building year for the Chairboys.
